Excellence in Environmental Engineering – CK Airtech India

What you need at work is an air of confidence. We offer the finest air filtering solutions, and prevent and control emissions. We are proud of our existence.  The meaning of our existence is to make our little planet a better place to live in,” says CK Airtech in its corporate presentation.

CK Airtech headquartered in Hosur is an environmental engineering company promoted and founded in 1995 by N. Chandrasekaran, the present Chairman, a Mechanical Engineer with a Master’s degree  from the Indian Institute of Science and with a long stint of corporate career. The company was co-promoted by R. Sakthi Mohan, the present Managing Director, a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering who after a brief corporate career as Project Lead abroad, quit the job and joined the company. In 2000 V. Saravanan, also Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, who had got shaped his career into manufacturing, planning & procurement after long stints in various engineering companies, joined the Board as Executive Director.

Core Competence

CK Airtech with a proven track record of two decades of engineering excellence is engaged in the design, manufacture, supply, installation and commissioning of Industrial Air Pollution Control Systems. The company’s core competence manifests in its design and application engineering, addressing specific requirements of its clients and offering customized solutions for control and abatement of air pollution. Its Design & Engineering Office, also housed in Hosur, has full-fledged AutoCAD (Inventor & 3D/2D) platforms.

The company makes a complete range of Air Pollution Control Equipment including Dust Collectors, Wet Scrubbers comprising Vertical & Horizontal Packed Bed type, Venturi type, Quench type and Cyclonic Scrubbers as well as Centrifugal Blowers. Wet Scrubbers are ideal for applications like Acid/Alkaline processes, Fume hood applications, Reactors exhaust and NOx / SOx scrubbing. It delivers turnkey solutions for air pollution control in all sectors including Steel, Minerals, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Cement, Power, Battery, Woodworking, and Food processing.

Some of the outstanding projects done by CK Airtech include:

Installation of a Baghouse for Gypsum Calcination at RCF, Trombay, Mumbai and
An Offline Filter for Lead Acid Battery Plant at Amararaja Batteries, Chittoor where the pollutant is lead.

“Our proven commitment to timely execution, quality and service is crystal clear from the height of satisfaction expressed by our clientele spread across the entire industrial spectrum,” relates Sakthi Mohan, Managing Director.

CK Airtech’s client list consists of big names like Amaron, RCF, JSW, HZL, VSP, Morgan Ceramics, FLS Chennai, 3M, Saint Gobain, ABB, Reliance, Aurobindo Pharma, Biocon, Exide, Grindwell Norton, FACT, Hindustan Unilever, ELGI, Cipla, Kansai Nerolac, Flaktwoods, Vedanta,Godrej, Reckitt Benkiser, SKS Power etc. and the spread is across many industrial verticals.

Sprawling Infrastructure

The company has sprawling manufacturing facilities all in one location. It is equipped with modern production equipment such as press brakes, shears, drilling machines, plate & flange rolling machines, HD lathes, CNC bending machines, welding equipment and materials handling systems. It also has a captive power plant for power back-up. It is armed with a dedicated workforce of 110 which includes 30 engineers.“Right from our consulting expertise to our world-class products, quality is seamlessly incorporated at every stage,” states Sakthi Mohan, Managing Director, elucidating his company’s quality obsession. “Our dedication to quality is also inextricably linked to our commitment to society in particular and the environment at large. Apart from adherence to stringent standards for our own processes, we also ensure that the client complies with all legislations on emission norms. Our own standards of workforce protection are on par with the best in the industry,” he adds.

“A team of quality assurance engineers execute inspection as per our Quality Assurance Protocol at our own full-fledged testing facilities, “explains V. Saravanan who looks after manufacturing. The company’s quality management systems are ISO 9001-2008 certified by TUV NORD. Its products also conform to standards like ANSI, ASTM and BIS. The company has a quarterly quality audit. It thrives in turnkey engineering.  Some of the projects also involve 3rd party inspection. The lead time for execution of a project varies from 8 to 16 weeks.

CK Airtech has various overseas association for technology and mainly with M/s.Heumann Environmental, USA for manufacturing High Efficiency Cyclones.  Similarly, it has signed an agreement with ENV-EX of Turkey recently for design and supply of Dust Suppression Systems. Under this agreement, the collaborator will extend technical support for any sector.

The project mapping for a new System requirement goes like this:

Feasibility report for critical cases > Site / Process Study > Design > Project Planning > Manufacturing >  Installation > Commissioning > Annual Maintenance.  The company does diligent planning of projects to offer turnkey solutions in a shortest cycle time.

The company has registered a steady growth of 10% year on year, clocking a turnover of Rs.26 crores in the last fiscal.  It has set a business plan to achieve Rs.100-crore by 2020 and accordingly expansion plans have been intiated to put the infrastructures in place.

“Our recent tie-ups will fill the gaps and enable us provide pollution control solutions to sectors like steel and cement where we want to be predominant. In order to increase our penetration and reach, we have now set up a full-fledged Marketing & Sales Team. We shall be working closely with EPCs in the days to come,” says K. Santosh Kumar, Head-Business Development.

Export is certainly a thrust area for CK Airtech. It was in 2008-09 that its first exports went to Finland and subsequently to UAE, Oman, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It has also supplied Process Filters for several applications that included exports to Russia, Morocco and the Middle East.

“Service is crucial in our business line. We have recently taken six customer support engineers to assist in installation as well as after-market service. They are being oriented for after-market sales. We are working out AMCs with some of our clients for 5 years and 10 years. Our ultimate objective is to provide Life Cycle Solutions to the customers,” adds Santosh Kumar.

“Last three years there had been a lull in business. But now we are in a growth phase. We envisage a 20% growth in the coming years. This should not be difficult with the upcoming Greenfield Projects in the sectors like Power, Steel, Minerals and with the new Govt. policies encouraging all-round infrastructure development,” states Santosh Kumar in quiet optimism.
In line with its mission, CK Airtech uses innovation and simplicity to provide economical and technological solutions that meet the environmental compliance of its customers. Its objective is to offer a comprehensive range of industrial air filtration products & solutions for a wide variety of applications tailor-made to meet customer needs. The company visions offering sustainable solutions to customers and gaining a global presence.

– P.K. Balasubbramaniian